Also on today’s menu:
Community Debates Resources For LGBTQ+ Students
Formella Finds Nothing Wrong With PragerU
State Reaches Settlement With Tempoe, LLC
The second Republican presidential candidate to appear at the Wicwas Lake Grange in Meredith Center — former vice-president Mike Pence had appeared there previously to a much smaller crowd — South Carolina Senator Tim Scott drew around 100 voters who filled all the seats and spilled out onto the porch on September 8.
Scott said he would take on border security and economic growth, and explained his views on foreign policy. “If we brought our jobs home from China and around the world, we could create six-figure incomes for Americans, decoupling our economy from China, saving American lives,” he said.
Scott went on to say he would aim for 5 percent growth in the gross domestic product through a “Made in America” program that would solve the long-term threat to then welfare system. As co-author of the 2017 tax cuts, Scott promised to further reduce funding to major federal departments to return spending to pre-pandemic levels.
Community Debates Resources For LGBTQ+ Students
Goffstown parents opposed to the availability of resources for the LGBTQ+ community have expressed concern over a transgender flag in the Mountain View Middle School guidance counselor’s office, a summer reading recommendation for the book Answers in the Pages, and, next to resources for suicide prevention and support on a whiteboard in the library, information about pronoun usage, the distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation, and definitions related to gender identity and sexuality.
Parents at the August 28 meeting of the Goffstown School Board had expressed concern and anger at that information being available to middle school children. Superintendent Brian Balke of the Goffstown and New Boston school districts subsequently announced the removal of those materials, while leaving the resources on suicide prevention on the bulletin board. In a video posted to the district website on September 7, Balke said he felt the bulletin board “exceeded the scope of developmental appropriateness for some middle school students,” noting that some are as young as age 10.
At the school board’s September 11 meeting, resident Frank Hobbs argued that such information violates RSA 186:11 which requires “school districts to adopt a policy allowing an exception to a particular unit of health or sex education instruction based on religious objections” and “to adopt a policy allowing an exception to specific course material based on a parent’s or legal guardian’s determination that the material is objectionable.” He said the messages on the bulletin board promoted “indoctrination camps or personal lifestyle propaganda” and are “not an appropriate use of Goffstown taxpayer dollars.”
Another resident, Sandy Rigazio, said accepting every child is important, but called the bulletin board divisive. “As a taxpayer, I think our education should be about math, English, it shouldn’t be about teaching gender, because it is such a divisive issue,” Rigazio said.
Brian Ibsen-Johnson countered, “Children should feel included regardless of their individual differences, including gender identity. Its message was not indoctrination, but one of care for each of our students and student body.”
Formella Finds Nothing Wrong With PragerU
After considering Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington’s request that Attorney-General John Formella look into deceptive practices by PragerU, a conservative nonprofit organization that is asking the state to provide its Learn Everywhere financial curriculum in public schools, the AG provided a statement: “The Attorney General’s Office has reviewed the concerns raised about ‘PragerU’ relating to the requirements of RSA 292:8-g and has determined that no further action is warranted at this time.”
Warmington contended that PragerU, incorporated as Prager University, is engaged in deceptive practices by using the term “university” without being accredited. She said Formella’s response “is disappointing” and said his office is failing to protect the public from PraterU’s “radical” viewpoints. She has pointed to anti-LGBTQ+ and racist postings by the nonprofit.
The State Board of Education plans to vote on whether to use PragerU’s financial curriculum on September 14.
State Reaches Settlement With Tempoe, LLC
Attorney-General John Formella has announced a settlement with Tempoe, LLC, resolving a multi-state investigation into Tempoe’s advertising and leasing policies. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia, investigating consumer complaints, found that Tempoe’s marketing and sales practices frequently misled consumers to believe they were signing up for an installment plan or credit sale when, in reality, they were entering into a lease agreement.
“The complicated structure and the lack of required disclosures of the lease agreements caused more confusion, often resulting in consumers paying 2-3 times the purchase price of the product or service,” Formella said. “We took action and reached today’s settlement because consumers were being systematically misled, trapped, and ultimately bilked by Tempoe, LLC. Specifically, customers of retailers including Sears and Kmart were kept in the dark about costly contract terms.”
The settlement permanently bans Tempoe from engaging in future consumer leasing activities and cancels all existing leases. Consumers may retain the leased merchandise in their possession without any further financial obligation, which Formella said results in about $33 million of “in-kind” financial relief nationwide. Additionally, Tempoe will not be able to provide negative information about lessees to any consumer reporting agency.
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